looking for help (algae)

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J

john28uk

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
May 25, 2010
6
0
0
england
hi all, my 60g tank currently houses 1 tiger oscar and 1 l330 both between 4 and 5 inch, no plants, just bogwood, water stats fine water change of approx 25-30% every 4 days. ALGAE HELL!!!!!! have to clean glass every 2 days. Wanna give curtis and fat joe some peace.. altered lighting to actinic blue, on for about 8 - 10 hours a day what else can i do/anything i can put in that wont either get eaten or over stock my tank.
Oh filter is 1 x 1200ltr/hr canister (aqua one)

Any help/advice appreciated

john
 
Feed less and keep the lights on less until the algae is all gone. Then slowly feed a little more and use lights but slowly when you see that the algae starts back up and stop there.
 
add another filer it should help, i had 4 oscars at 1 time an when i added more filtration everything came into line. oscres r very nasty fish. what sizes r ur fish?
 
It can be very difficult to prevent algae in a tank that gets direct sunlight, but you can certainly manage it I’ve just got the algae under control in my 36 gallon. Here’s a few tips that I learned:

Keep your phosphate levels under 1 ppm and your nitrate levels less than 10 ppm. Both are food for algae. I even switch fish food once I found out the stuff I was feeding had phosphate listed in the ingredients

Could you also try switching form flake food to pellets. There will be less food dissolved into the water as the fish eat it.

Be careful not to overfeed the fish.

Take one day and block out about 80% of the light from the tank and cut back the time your tank light is on to about 7 hours for a few weeks then back up to no more than 10 hours.

A second filter as already suggested will also help. Keep up with your regular water changes

I’ve read posts were people have used the after market film that you apply to vehicle windows to tint them. They claimed applying this to the outside of the tank removed the spectrum of light that algae really loves. I don’t know much about this much you might want to look into it.
 
both the oscar and l330 are between 4 and 5 inches, currently keep my nitrate levels below 20ppm. Dont feed flakes just turns his nose up at them.feed a mix of prawns, peas, pear (other fruit and veg) and tetra doromin floating sticks. will look into getting another filter.
 
Increased water changes, shut the lights off and throw a sheet over the tank for a couple days. Personally, I don't see how another filter will help. Excess nutrients + light = algae.
 
i am now only putting the lights on at night for 4 - 5 hours, cant afford another filter at this time but will prob need one when the o and plec grow.
 
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